St. Landry democrat., 1887-09-10

A VERY PunCt1klOuS 1Sact-A ho
Eastern women are pitied as unhappy
beings, on the theory that they are i'm
prisoned in gilded cage closely guarded
bv very ugly eunuchs, and reduced to
spend their time in attempting to catch
the smiles of a Jealous lord, as they sprawl
in graceful attitudes on silken cushions.
Their only other occupation is under
stood to be devouring immense quantities
of sweetmeats in order to become corpu-
lent; their only amusement the pleasure
of poisoning rival wives, and hearing in
terminable stories of the "Arabian
Nights pattern.
1t is true that with the Turk beauty
must be fat. 1t is not so, however, with
the Persian; he has the appreciation Of
connoisseur for the ,juste ml5teu. A stout
woman in Persia is spoken of as IAN ell
ephant," while the leaner ones are gen
orally called "camels.' Though they
deal largely in hyperbole, the Persians
do not mince matters in speaking of the
fair sex.
The veil, which is habitually worn out
of doors even by the very poor in all
great towns of Persia, though its use is
unknown among the tribes who form at
least third of the whole population, is
chung to by the women as privilege; it
is in fact domino. The Persian woman
out of doors is unacceptable even by
her husband. She sees without being
seen, and in the veil it is impossible to
detect the age of the wearer, and the
Persian lady is nearly always married at
fourteen, she begins to fade at seven and
twenty at latest, at thirty she appears
fifty, and there are only two dentists in
the whole of Persia.
Polygamy is the luxury of the rich;
with the upper and middle classes bigamy
is the rule A mans first alliance is
marriage de conrenance, the second either
marriage for love or for the qualification
of vanity. When your Persian brings
home second wife there is usually
scene which lasts for week or two;
there is a struggle for supremacy, but it
is soon over Both wives do their best
to please the master of the house; but
they do not attempt to poison each other,
unless in very exceptional circumstances.
But Persian ladies still believe in the
efficacy of love-philters, and many an
abominaton is secretly administered to
unfortunate husbands. Happily, the
love-philter, though usually composed of
horrible ingredients, is quite harmless.
The bath takes up a good deal of the
time of all Persian women. Even the
o++apI bo Hon, of laaC Of
once week For the lady the bath is
one of the serious affairs of life, and
takes up daily from two to four hours Of
her time 1t is something more than our
idea of a bath. The victim is scraped
and rubbed and parboiled. The soles of
the feet are pumiced until they are soft
and tender as those of little child. The
hair is thoroughly washed by means of
hot water and the saponaceous clay for
which Shiraz is celebrated. Then the at
PENDANTS mix in a brazen bowl the aro-
matte henna with the requisite amount
of lemon juice, till brown paste of the
consistency of cruel is produced and
several handfuls of the repulsive-lOOking
compound are smeared over the lady's
head. Then the hair, collected into a
mass, is bound up with cabbage-leaves.
Small quantities of the dye are smeared
over the eyebrows; the soles of the
feet, the toes, the palms of the hands,
and the tinger-tips are also covered
with it. And now the lady has to sit
perfectly still for from one to three
hours, till, like meerschaum pipe, she
colors; and it is exactly the color OBJ
tanned on the best specimens of pipes
that is most fashionable among the Per-
sian ladies. Day after day the bath is
thronged with women, each sitting per-
fectly still for the color to take" But
they have their reward; for the henna
dyes the hair beautiful deep warm
chestnut: hence gray hair is unknown
among Persian ladies. While the color
ing process has been going on tongues
have been running, and good deal of
scandal has been exchanged. The female
barber with a pair of tweezers, has re-
moved every outlying hair from the
region of the lady's eyebrows. 1t is the
ambition of every Persian woman that her
eyebrows shall meet, or at least appear to
do SO; so attractive are eyebrows that
meet that they are called the bridge of
love-" The first care, then, of the Persian
beauty is with little pencil of anthony
to unite her eyebrows, and then she pro-
ceeds to make them appear Of unnatural |
thickness her eyelashes are penciled,
too, in a manner not unknown to our
own countrywomen. By this time the
lady will have smoked many kalians or
water-pipes, she will have partaken of |
tea, and RECALLED herself with coffee;
iced sherbets, too, will not have been
wanting. Her tinger-tips, nails and |
palms, as well as the sOles of her
feet and her toes, have attained a bright
chestnut hue which will last a week.
The hair is carefully washed once more.
1t is seldom under a yard long, often
much more; for the Persian woman
never cuts her hair, except in front per-
haps, when two heavy love-locks are
left on either side Of the face. The
ladies now return home to their noon
day breakfasts. After breakfast there is
generally siesta and this in hot coun-
try is almost necessity. About four,
tea and pipes appear; and then the lady
receives callers or pays visits or per-
haps does little shopping, or takes the
air mounted on her ambling mule or a
donkey of snowy wilderness.
The Persians are very punctilious
race; and it is the sensible custom of the
country, on making call, to announce
beforehand that you are coming. A
thousand and one little points of pune
tiIio have to be observed; a certain num-